Servers like enterprise servers host critical production data in their storage systems and may require this data to be resilient to a variety of failures, which could range from media to data center failures. In addition there may be a need for other enterprise servers to concurrently access this same critical data. These applications might include for example analysis, monitoring and supervision of server functions to verify, for example, application or data compatibility. The former need may be addressed by a range of data protection schemes that may include tape-based backup and the latter need may be addressed by a range of data management schemes that may include setting up a specialized analysis server with a replica of that critical production data and/or software.
Typical data protection and management schemes may vary in their approach and are deficient in numerous areas. For example, deficiencies in typical approaches can relate to a lack of application intelligence. Block and file based approaches are not application intelligent and do not preserve the integrity and consistency of server applications and/or data. If data corruption strikes the primary server database, the corruption is replicated to the typical disaster recovery copy of the data, rendering it corrupt. Additionally, traditional server disaster recovery solutions are file system based and require scripts and manual steps to re-configure server services for failover. Manual steps are error prone and time consuming and scripts are customized per site and are expensive to maintain. Furthermore, typical disaster recovery approaches force unsupported agents and filter system drivers and matching standby server names which can cause production system failures, mis-configuration and generally increase overall management complexity. Also, direct access to the enterprise server by other servers can result in instability and performance load on the enterprise servers, while other deficiencies may relate to the serial and offline nature of tape storage. Consequently, there is a need for systems and methods that provide enterprise service availability while preserving server identities.